Henry Weiner - Böcker

This volume contains information on aldehyde dehydrogenase, alcohol dehydrogenase, short- and medium-chain dehydrogenase, and reductases. Sixty-nine contributions provide a wide variety of information on enzymology, molecular biology, and metabolic aspects of these carbonyl metabolizing oxido-reductases. Much new information is provided, including previously unreported three-dimensional structures of enzymes and new aspects of gene regulation, along with sequence alignments, metabolism and enzyme mechanisms.

Since the inception of these meetings in 1982, they have always been a satellite of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism meeting. At our 1992 meeting in Dublin we learned that the next ISBRA meeting would be held in Brisbane, of all our previous meetings, I was very concerned Australia. As the scientific organizer about holding a meeting in the Southern Hemisphere for fear that many of our potential participants would not travel that far. I am pleased to say that I was proven to be incorrect. Nearly 90 scientists from a dozen countries participated at our seventh conference. At this meeting, like at all our previous ones, much new information about the three enzyme systems was presented. Of equal importance was, like at all our previous meetings, the extreme openness of the participants to discuss ideas, future directions and unpublished data. On behalf of all the participants I wish to express our sincere thanks to our Massey University colleagues for the excellent organization of this Palmerston North, New Zealand meeting. These included Kathryn Kitson, Michael Hardman, Paul Buckley, Trevor Kitson and Len Blackwell. At this meeting a few new innovations were introduced. Though posters are common at many meetings, bush walks and visits to nature preserves to see kiwi birds Our hosts were able to secure support from the International Union of Biochemistry are not.

The Sixth International Workshop on the Enzymology and Molecular Biology of Carbonyl Metabolism was held outside of Dublin, Ireland at the end of June, 1992. Prof. Keith Tipton, Chairman of the Biochemistry Department at Trinity College, kindly agreed to host the meeting. On behalf of all of us who attended I wish to extend our sincere thanks to the whole Tipton family for making us feel so welcome in Ireland. It has been a decade since the frrst workshop was held in Bern, Switzerland. The scope of the meetings reflected somewhat the changes that have occurred in biochemistry during the past decade. At the first meeting primarily enzymes and their properties were discussed. At this last meeting many of the talks centered on gene regulation as well as more traditional aspects of enzymology and metabolism. During the past decade site directed mutagenesis to probe for the active site of an enzyme has become part of traditional enzymology; this was virtually unheard of at our frrst meeting. Many of the presenters now used this tool to study some aspect of structure and function of one of the three carbonyl metabolizing enzymes.

Prior to the start of the eighth meeting, I had the good sense to ask Professor Rosa Angela Canuto of Turin, Italy if she would help me organize the ninth meeting. She quickly suggested that both she and Dr. Guiliana Muzio, also of Turin, help plan the meet­ ing. Each of our previous eight meetings was a unique experience for the participants. The science was always outstanding and the presentations and discussions were excellent. By moving each meeting to a different part of the world we were able to experience exciting foods and cultural aspects of the world in addition to the science. The ninth meeting was no exception. We met from June 18 to 22 in the small mountain city of Varallo, Italy, the birth place of Dr. Canuto. Holding the scientific sessions in a several-hundred-year-old converted mansion and having an afternoon trip to either Lago Maggiore or Monte Rosa made some aspects of this meeting extremely memorable. An additional unique aspect of the social portion of the meeting was our ability to invite the townspeople to share with us a concert performed in an old church. Though the social and cultural aspects of the meeting were outstanding, the pur­ pose of the meeting was to exchange scientific information about the status of the three enzyme systems.

Since 1982, our ever-expanding group of investigators has been meeting in exotic parts of the world to discuss aspects of three enzyme systems. The 1996 meeting was no exception. Nearly 90 scientists from 15 countries met in the small city of Deadwood, South Dakota, for four days of stimulating talks and posters and incredible scenery. Once more this meeting reflected the changing trends in biochemical research. At the 1982 meeting most of the speakers discussed isolating new enzymes and trying to characterize them. At this meeting many speakers discussed interpretations of three-dimensional struc­ ture or regulatory elements of the genes controlling for the tissue-specific expression of the enzyme. Hopefully, readers will find the proceedings of the meeting to be of interest. Though they reflects the scientific information that was presented at the meeting, they do not indicate the level of personal interactions that went on during the meeting. Once again, the willingness of the participants to discuss unpublished data and to share thoughts about the future directions of their research helped make this, like our previous seven meetings, a special scientific experience for those who attended.

The Fifth International Workshop on the Enzymology and Molecular Biology of Carbonyl Metabolism was held at Purdue University in June, 1990. This represents the fifth time that I had the privilege of organizing the scientific program. It was the first time that I actually hosted the meeting. I wish to salute my four previous co-organizers and the thousands of scientists who have hosted other meetings. It is much easier to arrange the scientific program and edit the proceedings. No local organization could occur without the help of ones research group and, in this case, my wife. I sincerely thank Esther and my research group for their advise and help. At this Workshop, similar to the preceeding ones, much new information was presented. It was apparent how molecular biological techniques were influencing the direction of the research on the three families of enzymes discussed. It also was apparent that not all biochemical problems could be solved by using these techniques. Many of the presentations showed how important advances still could be made using more traditional biochemical approaches.